Re: FAT16 or FAT32 USB pens, how to differentiate?

In article <ant091333f7fpErr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Chris Evans
<chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> How can you tell if a USB flash drive is formatted to FAT16 or
> FAT32?

> As people may be aware USB Flash pen drives can come formatted in
> Fat16 or Fat32 those formatted in FAT32 can cause problems if
> written to on both a RISC OS /early Windows machines and later
> versions of Windows.

> We try to ensure that our stock of pens are FAT16 as well as being
> compatible with Iyonix, Unipod, Simtec USB podule and Castle USB
> podules.

> The main brand we have been supplying 'Peak' is being replaced by
> Peak II which does not meet all of the above criteria;-(

> AIUI under Windows 'properties' fat16 and fat32 both report as 'fat'

> I realise I may have to use a windows box:-(

> n.b. Manufacturers often change the internal electronics without
> warning e.g. we have a number of 512MB Pens that seem identical,
> same packaging, bar code etc but have a different vendor, product
> ID and compatibility:-(


I'm glad you raised this item. It just so happens that I have a FAT
problem at the moment (and it's nothing to do with my waist-line!).

I tried to use a brand new USB Flash Drive (maker Integral) on my RPC
UniPod after saving some photos to it on my WindowsXP laptop. Yet on
the RPC the Flash Drive window showed blank - and guess who saved
some data to it (apparently successfully) from the RPC?

The result was that the Flash Drive was corrupted and the only thing
to do was to re-format - which could only be done on the Windows
machine (AFAIK). So I instructed it to use FAT16 and it worked fine
again on the Windows machine but same blank window on the RPC. (This
time I did not try saving to it!)

But the RPC UniPod works fine when I plug my USB camera into it.

So FAT16 - at least as formatted by WindowsXP - can also be a problem
and STD said I should try to re-format it from an earlier Windows OS
because "XP doesn't use a 'proper FAT16'. "

I'll look forward to reading comments on this thread because I'm
totally in the dark on this subject.

--
Regards from Ray Favre. Email at: <ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Web site at: <http://www.rayfavre.me.uk/>
Tel: (+44) (0)1895 444410
.

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